Briefing fish and seafood suppliers at this weeks Groundfish Forum event, Youngs Seafood Limited is seeking to work closely with its supply base, customers and other stakeholders to raise the bar on sustainability.
Fish for Life, and Youngs Ten Principles for Responsible Fish Procurement, were established in 2006. Youngs is now making Fish for Life its whole business philosophy, building on the work the company has done on responsible sourcing and procurement. Five Fish for Life work streams are already underway on Sourcing, Environmental Footprint, Healthy Diet, Community and Transparency and new plans are outlined in Youngs new leaflet (http://www.youngsseafood.co.uk/web/fish_for_life.asp).
Leendert den Hollander, the Chief Executive of Youngs Seafood Limited, said: We believe that success is about doing the right thing now, and for generations to come. Thats why were making Fish for Life our corporate quality mark for responsible management, as well as our standard for fish sourcing. This move is about responsibly serving our customers and consumers doing what we do better every day.
Mike Mitchell, Technical and CSR Director at Youngs Seafood Limited added: When we first set up our Fish for Life programme on responsible fish procurement, we recognised we had a responsibility to take a stand and promote sustainable change. Protecting our seas and inspiring people to eat responsibly sourced fish are part of the same story a story that Youngs has been part of for over 200 years. Through our experience with this programme, we found that by working together with stakeholders we can drive real, sustainable change and were applying the lessons we have learnt across all our business. Were passionate about taking action and were looking to raise the bar further with exciting projects which we will announce through the next year.
The leaflet details initiatives across the five work streams. Highlights from the Fish for Life plan include:
- Supplying new sources of sustainable and responsibly sourced fish. We are set to become the first company to supply Aquaculture Stewardship Council certified sustainable Basa to the UK
- Increase awareness, knowledge and experience of the journey from sea to plate through Youngs new School of Fish training programme
- Ensuring that any palm oil we use is Responsibly Sourced Palm Oil by 2014
- Cutting energy use by 20 per cent by 2020
- Reducing water use by 25 per cent by 2020
- Cutting waste by 20 per cent by 2020
- Reducing our use of refrigerants by 50 per cent by 2020
